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Populous is working on a Kansas City Wizards soccer stadium, which is part of a $400 million development plan for a site in Kansas City, Kan.

SportsBusiness Journal

Populous officials confirmed that 10 percent of the firm’s U.S. work force has been put on a four-month furlough, further proof that the slump in sports-facility development is far from over.

Gina Stingley, brand manager for Populous, sports’ biggest architect, would not provide specific numbers, but industry sources say the move affects about 30 employees in Kansas City, where the company’s headquarters are located. The company has more than 400 workers worldwide. It is the first time the company has put employees on furlough, Stingley said.

Populous hopes to bring back furloughed employees after 120 days, senior principal Rick Martin said in a prepared statement. In Kansas City, staff levels remain higher than when the company moved into its new headquarters in 2005, Martin said. That number, however, has been on the decline after two rounds of layoffs in September and May 2009. Those cuts affected at least 58 employees, including principal Steve Hotujac and sustainability coordinator Stephanie Graham.

Populous is not the only sports designer cutting staff. Other firms in Kansas City, considered the home of sports architecture, have had layoffs. In some cases, to avoid further reductions, design companies have moved people to work on other projects outside of sports, sources said.

The problem with such a long furlough is that those employees need to find jobs to sustain themselves while sitting on the sidelines for four months, and they can’t be expected to wait until getting a callback from Populous, consultant Bill Rhoda said.

Rhoda, whose firm, CSL International, has done market research for 75 percent of new facilities in the big leagues and college sports, said things have been slow on his end. There are few new buildings left to build at the major-league level and the recession has put other projects on hold, he said.

“Our level of business is down and we are usually an indicator because we are on the front end of these jobs,” Rhoda said. “The architects see us not busy and know they are not going to be busy. Looking four to five years out, there’s not a lot of planning going on.”

The American Institute of Architects’ Washington office recently reported that architecture firms have lost about 40,000 positions since July 2008 and that total revenue has declined every month for almost two years. In Kansas City, sources said, the slumping economy has put roughly 30 percent of architects out of work.

In late 2008, 360 Architecture cut 10 employees, most of them architects. But the firm has increased its number of local architects from 30 to 34 since July, Tom Waggoner, senior principal of the Kansas City-based firm, said recently. He attributed the growth to a diverse mix of projects, including those recently landed by the global sports practice.

360 Architecture recently concluded work on Meadowlands Stadium, the East Rutherford, N.J., home of the New York Giants and New York Jets, and has been selected to help design Basra Sports City in Iraq.

AECOM Ellerbe Becket, another global sports practice based in Kansas City, has maintained its staff of 26 architects and added a half-dozen temporary employees since July, thanks to ongoing work at the Superdome in New Orleans and its selection to design the New Jersey Nets’ new arena, managing principal Steve Duethman said recently.

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